Without a doubt, 2007 will go down as an "annus horribilis" for many industries in Japan, particularly the food industry. The list of scandals and crises last year was long indeed, and began right in January with the discovery that crowd-pleasing confectioner Fujiya had been mislabeling products for years.
That the iconic brand was capable of such deception was a shock — even to a public that is fairly used to coverups and other malfeasance. Fujiya since has come under the protective wing of former rival Yamazaki, but other companies guilty of similar crimes have fared less well.
In June, ironically named Meat Hope Inc. of Hokkaido was found to have been falsely labeling its goods when packages marked as beef were found to contain meat from pork and chicken as well.